Drying process.



s.E.sEAMAN{ DRYING PROCESS.

APPLICATION FILED IuNE 4. I9I1.

1,299,791 Patented Apr. 8, 1919.

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CmICAL C0mANY,-0F NEWYOBK, N.' Y., A. CORPORATION 0F `Ih'llllW YORK.

name rnocnss.

To'aZZ-whom-tfmay coacrhi I Kings, andState of New lYork, have inventeda newand useful Improvement in' Drying'Processes, of whichthefollowingis a full, clear, and exact description,

. My invention relates to improvements ina process of dryingmorelor lessinely divided wood, hull-bran, nut shells,- cotton seed hulls,

cellulose, 1ignum,orother materials having a distillate worth'saving'preparatory to subjecting such materials to. destructivedistillation. ylin order -that the material may have the best' chemicalyield, it is advisable to have it substantially dry, and furthermore l'this obviates the diiliculty of generating too much-*steam or otherwaste gases in the retort. .Heretofore, however, diiiiculties havearisen in connection with drying such materials as ysawdust and otherfinely divided material" of the; kind specified, in'thatso much dust isgenerated'that explosions frequently occur and the dried material hasbeen dangerous to handle. e On .the other hand to get to a-low moisturecontent, `and with my improved process I have been able todry thematerial to absolute dryness withoutdanger of explosions and withoutloss of material.

In' carrying out this idea use a drier which can be ofany approved type,but'is 'l" preferably a rotary drier, and apply direct heat-in'which thefurnace .gases of combustion are drawndirectlyor indirectly through thedrier. The wetmaterialto be dried is admitted with the hot combustiongases at "611e end of the drier, the whole content is dit this. way the'charge to be distilled .is thor withdrawnfrorn the. opposite'end by anexhanister `and then passed through a dust 'sep-v arator of theordinary'or'any approved type.

which permits the waste gaSSahd steam'. `to escaa from' the top, whilethe material to be ed 4is delivered through the bottom. In

oulily' and, may be absolutely dried, while itv ees notcomein contactwith Zthe atmos- Ipheric air, but is fed directly to theretort so 'that'all danger is r.f nbviated.

This will be thefdescription which foll Speci-ieation.ofLetters Patent.application met '4,-ie`17, 'lsrxa1 narrates.;

jshws the drier in a otherformskcanbeuse` l All the mat 'al 'n the drier,is exhausted `1.0Ws, and in which theligures show a form Be it knownthat L'STEWART SEAMAN,

' aci'tizen ofthe United States, and a resident of the boroughv vofBrooklyn, county vof .iently used for carrying my processinto efl'fect,although other forms of driers can be used if preferred.

Patented Apr. 351919.

DSTA'EES PATENT QFFICE. l

` STEWART E.- sammelten BROOKLYN, NEW Yonx, AssIGNon. 'ro sEAMaNwasrnwoon of .drying apparatus :which-can be conveningdrawin'gs yforming a part of this specication', in which similar referencecharacters indicate correspondingparts in all the views."

vvFigure 1 is a side elevationlpartlyfin sec.

tion of an apparatus -suitable for the intended purpose, and

.Fig 2 is-aL cross section on theline 2-2 of` Flgn 1.

The material'which as stated is morev or less Iine'ly divided, and whichis to be dist1lled, is fed in its moist form or natural condition to thehopper 10, passingthrough a gate 11 which may be counter-balanced by aweighted arm 12 .and-passes through the in- -let end 13 of a rotarycylindrical drier 14.

This drierl is arranged to receive at its inlet- -end the combustiongasesfrom` a suitable furnace 15, which can be of any approved 1 type.

Where a rotary dri'erv is used as shown it is preferably provided withsome form of lifting blades as 16, which will keep the material stirredup and in the air 'so that all' parts of it 'can be subjected to the hotgases and so quickly dried.

Any suitable means vcan be used for rotating the drier, and Ihave showna very common form of structure in which the drying cylinder'14 hascollars 17 runningon supporting trucks 18 andydriven by `a gear wheel19,

pinion 20 and suitable connection with the driving shaft 21. Thisstructure is vnot gone into in detail for the reason that it only topass out at the top, while the dust and dried material. drops throughthe bottom,-" 105;

general'` type becausel The separator 25 is [throughfan`- outletpipe'22-which connects'fVIV with an 'exhauster '23, andthe latterd-i'scharges through appe. 24 linto a .separator 25. This vca n'be'anylusual type of separator l which permits the waste gases and steam Uthe separator.

sparks or embersbeing drawn through the drier and into the separator soas to produce explosions, and the exhauster 23 is preferably placedbetween -the drier and This is important because much line dust isgenerated in drying and should be removed at once, the material becomesthoroughly dried, and if any sparks should enter this dried materialwhich is more or less gaseous, or at least is in an explosive condition,disastrous results follow.

After the material is thoroughly dried as stated, I prefer to feed itdirectly to the retort before it has a chance to absorb any moisture ortake fire, and to this end I arrange the inlet of the retort immediatelybelow the discharge from the separator 25, or at least arrange to feedthe material directly from the separator to the retort. In

the drawing I have shown a convenient way of carrying out this idea.I-Iere the drier is shown 1n connection with a retort of the kinddisclosed in Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,236,885, datedAugust 14, 1917, but obviously other forms of retort may be suppliedfrom the drier if desired. As shown the dried material issuing from theseparator passes into the feed hopper 26 of the retort, and from thishopper it is pushed by the ram or plunger 27 into and through the feedpipe 28 of the retort 29. Thus the air is expelled and the retortsealed. Obviously many other forms of retort and feeding devices mightbe used without affecting the principle of the invention. It will beseen from the description given that the entire material to be distilledpasses through the drier with the gases of combustion rom the furnace,and that the entire products both of the material to be dried and fromthe furnace flue, pass to the separator 25 where the separation takesplace as indicated, and so the dried material is never in contact withthe outside air. Thus it will be seen that the dust and fine material isconfined until it reaches the retort, and as the material is mingleddirectly with the products of combustion from the furnace it isthoroughly dried, and without waste.

From the rforegoing description it will be seen that the form of drieris not very material, but that the essential thing is to have a dryingchamber through which the hot products of combustion from the furnaceare drawn and to carry through thischamber the material to be driedwhich is thus subjected to the action of the hot furnace gases.

It will also be noticed that this process is continuous, as the drierserves as a part of a iiue through which the hot products of combustic-nfrom the furnace are drawn, and the material to be dried whether sawdustor other more or less linely divided material, can be continuously fedto the drier and the separation goes on continuously in the sepau rator25.

It will be noticed that the drying cham ber or drier 14 can receive thehot gases from any suitable furnace, that the feed of the wet materialis at the end of the. drier which receives the hot gases, and that thematerial is exhausted by suction applied to the discharge end of thedrier. This is important because in this arrangement the greatestpressure is at the end nearest the exhauster, and so the wet materialcomes in contact with the hot gases of combustion at their point ofhighest temperature and the sparks are extinguished by the wet materialbefore they can be carried through the drier to the material which hasbecome thoroughly dried. Where attempts have been made to blow hot gasesthrough the drier with the material to be dried, disastrous results haveusually followed because the pressure then is highest at the intake endof the drier and occasionally sparks will ily through and of courseignite and explode the charge. It will -be further noticedthat thisoperation is continuous and that it is used in connection with adestructive still, so that the material assing from the separator passesdirectly to t e still through suitable feeding means, which itis notthought necessary to show here, and there is no chance for the materialto pick up moisture or to create'explos'ive dusts or comtion from afurnace into said drier near the' intake of the material to be dried,drawing the mingled gases and material through the drier by suctionapplied at the dischargeend of the latter, separating the waste gasesfrom the dried material, and feeding theA dried material direct to aretort.

2. The process of drying more or less finely divided material whichconslsts of feeding the material to be dried to a drying chamber,drawing the hot gases of combustion from a furnace throu h such chamberwhereby the chargeand t e hot gases become mingled. exhausting thecontents of the drying chamber, and separatin the steam and waste gasesfrom the dri charge at such a distance from the .drying chamber as' willpreclude the carrying of sparks to the point of separation.

3. The process of drying which consists in feeding more or less finelydivided material to be dried into one end of a drier, discharging thehot gases of combustion from a furnace into the inlet end of the drier,a 'tating the contents of the drier, exhausting the contents from thedischarge end of the drier,

vseparating thesteam' and waste gases from p the discharge, and feedingthe dried material to .aretortg continuously passin mingled hot,products of furnace combustion and material to be dried through a"drying chamber,vcont`inu ously exhausting'the contents of the chamberby suction atthe discharge end thereof, separating the steam and wastegases from the dried material, and continuously feeding the driedmaterial to a retort.

5. The process of drying which consists in continuously passing mingledhot products of furnace combustlon and material to beA dried through adrying chamber, continuously exhausting the contents of the chamber bysuction at thel discharge end thereof,

and separating the steam and waste gases -'from the drying chamber aswill preclude -the carrying of` sparks or excessivelyhot gases tothepoint nf separation. 4; The process of drying which consists in 6. Theprocess of dryingV more or less nely divided materials which consists infeeding the material 'to be dried to a drying chamber, drawing the hotgases of combustion from a urnacelthrough such drying chamber andmingling the furnace gases with the material to be dried, withdrawingthe contents of the drying chamber to such a distance as will precludethe presence of sparks or excessively hot gases, and then im mediatelyseparating the waste gases and fine dust from the' dried material.

STEWART. E. SEAMAN.

Witnesses:

F. ENOSLIN, W. F. DOUGHTY.

